Is "MacPort" a valid term?

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jun 10, 2008, at 11:43, markd at macports.org wrote:

>> For a long time, I thought that when people were saying port, in this
>> discussion, I thought the were referring to a port or a tcp/ip  
>> address.
>> like localhost:80
>
> Clarity is one of the reasons that in the past I frequently used  
> the term
> "MacPorts port" (to distinguish it from FreeBSD and other port  
> systems),
> but this is too cumbersome and inelegant when used a lot so I mostly
> curtailed that.  Using the term "MacPort" would make the term  
> clear, but
> is that really a valid term in current usage?  It seems we're only
> comfortable with the plural form, and I think that is why we always  
> fall
> back to the more generic "port" to express a single MacPorts port.

Just like Apple doesn't want you to say "I wrote an  
AppleScript" (they want you to say "I wrote an AppleScript script"),  
I don't like hearing "I installed a MacPort" (I think "I installed a  
MacPorts port" is clearer).

That's not to say I don't see your point too. "MacPorts port" (and  
"AppleScript script") is long and sounds silly. Would be neat if we  
could come up with a new cute term for our ports. Ruby has gems, for  
instance. What entities could MacPorts have?